Should vinnana be interpreted as consciousness/awareness?
Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 4:28 pm
Hi, I'm wondering if our translation and interpretation of vinnana as consciousness/awareness is appropriate or not. By the way, I moved the following thread form another thread to here:
"He assumes about what seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, pondered by the intellect: 'This is me, this is my self, this is what I am.'"
Clearly the Buddha referred to [the established] vinnana as not only the "bare" awareness, but also "sought after, pondered by the intellect", which appears to be awareness plus proliferations. To my limited knowledge, in some Chinese and Tibetan Mahayana traditions vinnana seems to be translated as "discrimination", "differentiation", and etc. Somehow such activities were all put into sankharas (fabrications) instead of vinnana in the Theravada tradition. The Buddha actually defined sankharas as six type of vollitions in one sutta (I forgot which one), instead of all mental formations.
To my understanding, the awareness of the Buddha is the unestablished vinnana.
Hope this confusion can be clarified. Metta to all,
Starter
Actually, the Buddha defined [the established] vinnana [the aggregate of consciousness] in MN 22: Alagaddūpama Sutta: [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html]kirk5a wrote:That would seem to present a puzzle in understanding this statement then, doesn't it?rowyourboat wrote:We come to see that a good portion of what we 'see' is created in our minds ... even awareness itself -vinnana.
"Being freed, dissociated, and released from consciousness... the Tathagata dwells with unrestricted awareness."
If vinnana=consciousness=awareness=mental creations, I wonder how much sense it would make to say "Being freed, dissociated, and released from from consciousness... the Tathagata dwells with unrestricted consciousness." or "Being freed, dissociated, and released from awareness... the Tathagata dwells with unrestricted awareness." Why would the Tathagata dwell in something mind-created? And how could he dwell dissociated in the very thing he was dissociated from?
"He assumes about what seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought after, pondered by the intellect: 'This is me, this is my self, this is what I am.'"
Clearly the Buddha referred to [the established] vinnana as not only the "bare" awareness, but also "sought after, pondered by the intellect", which appears to be awareness plus proliferations. To my limited knowledge, in some Chinese and Tibetan Mahayana traditions vinnana seems to be translated as "discrimination", "differentiation", and etc. Somehow such activities were all put into sankharas (fabrications) instead of vinnana in the Theravada tradition. The Buddha actually defined sankharas as six type of vollitions in one sutta (I forgot which one), instead of all mental formations.
To my understanding, the awareness of the Buddha is the unestablished vinnana.
Hope this confusion can be clarified. Metta to all,
Starter